


Precious Girl by the Sea

by Caedmon



Series: Precious Girl [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Day At The Beach, F/M, Family, Fluff, Holidays, Summer Vacation, Time Babies, Time Tots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 10:36:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7357825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caedmon/pseuds/Caedmon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor, Rose, Jackie and Jack take Emma on her first holiday to a seaside resort town.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beach

**Author's Note:**

> This story (and the others in the "Precious Girl" 'verse) are the direct result of a dearth of Daddy!Nine fic and my attempt to help correct that. This story is part of a 'verse so it will make more sense if you have read the first story in it, but if you haven't, it should work fine as a standalone. 
> 
> This particular story was prompted by the TimePetalsPrompt weekly prompt: _children and summer_
> 
> Rated T for some innuendo and flirting between the Doctor and Rose.
> 
> There very well may be a second chapter to this following the other locations at the resort town, but I can't promise it. The chapter is being obstinate. :)

“I still can’t believe I let you talk me into bringing your mum along,” the Doctor griped, dragging a bag stuffed to the brim with towels and baby gear into the galley where Rose was preparing a picnic basket. “And Jack!”

Rose smiled to herself at his complaining, but kept making sandwiches. “It’s a family holiday, Doctor, and they are her family,” she told him, simply. 

The Doctor muttered something indistinct and Rose rolled her eyes. 

“It won’t kill you to spend the next three days with Jack and my mother.”

He gave her a very put-upon look. “I wish it was just the three of us,” he bemoaned. 

Rose wrapped the sandwich she was working on in wax paper and wiped her hands on a dishtowel, then walked over to slip her hands around her husband’s waist. He put his arms around her automatically and she stood on tiptoe to kiss his chin. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

He reared his head back to look down at her. “Oh?”

Rose nodded up at him, intentionally biting her lip. “I’ve been swimming in the TARDIS pool, trying to get back into shape after Emma was born and, well, I think I’m back in bikini shape.”

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. “You’re going to be prancing around in a bikini in front of Jack?”

“I’m going to be prancing around in a bikini in front of _you_ , Doctor. And when we come back to the ship, I’ll let Mum get the baby settled in, and maybe you can take it off of me.”

He smirked down at her. “That so?”

“That’s so.” She stuck her tongue in the corner of her mouth, then took on a stern look, poking him in the chest with one finger. “But only if you _behave_. Put on your trunks, quit your complaining about Mum and Jack tagging along, and try to have a good time for the next three days. They love Emma, just like we do, and they want to spend time with her, too.”

“Nobody loves Emma just like we do.”

Rose gave him a sour look. “You know what I mean, Doctor.”

He sighed, and Rose knew she’d won. “Oh, alright. As long as you promise about the bikini thing.”

Rose made a show of crossing her heart, and noticed the Doctor follow the trail of her finger with his eyes. 

“Fine. Let’s go pick up your mum so she can shriek about my ‘bloody ship’ and what a rubbish driver I am.”

~*~O~*~

As it turned out, the Doctor’s driving skills were spared his mother-in-law’s snarky comments when she came on board in a swirl of pink tracksuit, shoving bags at he and Jack without looking and demanding from Rose to know where her granddaughter was. 

“Emma is sleeping, Mum,” Rose said in a soft voice, as if to be too loud in the console room may wake the baby. In truth, the baby usually _did_ nap in the console room during the day while the Doctor was nearby and could be there in a moment if she woke up. 

“I just want to see her,” Jackie pouted. “It’s been an age. Bloody Doctor keeps you away so long…”

“Oi!” he protested. “S’only been three weeks!”

“That’s almost a month!” Jackie cried with a painted fingernail aimed right at his chest accusingly. “She’s m’only grandchild, nevermind you already stole away with m’only daughter. I shouldn’t have to -”

“Alright, now,” Rose interrupted, stepping between the two to forestall a fight. “Mum, I’ve talked to the Doctor. He comes back anytime I ask him and we’re able to, yeah?”

“Bet he says you can’t just so he doesn’t have to come.” She crossed her arm and bored her eyes into him aggressively. The Doctor bristled, but Rose stepped in before he had a chance to defend himself.

“He does _not_ do that, Mum. We’ve been busy for a while. The TARDIS needed some repairs. Now _play nice_.”

Jackie crossed her arms. “He started it.”

“ _Oi!_ ”

Rose turned and pointed a finger at him. _”You._ Remember the deal we made.”

The Doctor scowled darkly for a moment, then deflated under his wife’s glare, which she softened as soon as she saw him give in. He sighed - a gesture he was sure he’d be repeating multiple times over the next three days.

“Fine,” he grumped. 

She softened the blow to his ego with a wink and her tongue in the corner of her smile, then took her mother’s arm and started down the corridor towards Emma’s nursery. 

Jack stepped up beside him. 

“Surprised you didn’t say ‘yes dear’ like the good little husband you are.”

“Shove off, Harkness.”

“You made a deal?”

“Shut it.”

“Must be a hell of a deal if you’re willing to play nice with Jackie.”

“I said shut it, Jack, or I’ll shut it for you.”

Jack just grinned, completely unrepentant. “What’d she promise you, anyway?”

The Doctor cut his eyes over at the lascivious captain and debated telling Rose to wear a muumuu. 

“None of your business,” he replied primly. 

“Oh, it’s like that, is it?” Jack hooted.

The Doctor smirked. “Yeah. It’s like that.”

~*~O~*~

After some debate, they’d settled on visiting a seaside town that had multiple attractions nearby for them to enjoy, including a lovely beach, a waterpark with a large children’s area, and a big, state-of-the-art aquarium for the Doctor to mock and deride. 

There had been no question about where to go first, however; they had all wanted to hit the beach. 

So the little family all came out of the police box laden with bags, umbrellas and chairs, Rose with Emma in a pink bathing suit and sunhat propped on one hip. The Doctor’s mood had much improved since he’d executed a perfect landing amongst the dunes and he turned around after he locked his ship. “We ready to go?” The three adults - including Jackie - smiled and nodded back at him, and he hoisted the bag he was carrying higher on his shoulder. “Fantastic. Let’s find a spot.”

They headed down towards the coast. Jackie and Rose picked out a spot for them to set up for the day, and the Doctor and Jack set about laying out blankets, setting up chairs and planting umbrellas in the sand under the watchful eye of the resident grandmother. 

Once they were set up, Rose started spreading the 38th century sunscreen all over a squirming Emma. When she was done, she offered the bottle to her mum. 

“Oh, no,” Jackie declared loudly. “Not putting any of that space cream on me!”

“Mum, shhh!” Rose hissed. “It’s not alien, it’s from Earth...just in the future. And do you _really_ think I’d put any on my daughter if it wasn’t perfectly safe?” 

Jackie looked mutinous, but took the cream. When she was done, Rose took it back and started spreading it over herself. She felt hands on her waist, plucking at the sides of her bikini bottoms, and a low voice grumbled in her ear. “Do your back?”

Rose turned her head and gave the Doctor a coquettish grin. “Here? Now? Mum and Jack are here, Doctor.”

He growled and nipped at her shoulder playfully. “Minx.”

She giggled and held the bottle up to him. “You do mine and I’ll do yours.” 

He took the cream and squirted a little into his hands, spreading it across her shoulders. “Don’t need any, me. Superior Time Lord physiology. You know that. Emma only needs any because she’s half human.” 

Rose turned around, looping her arms around his neck and smirking at him. “Now, Doctor. Are you _really_ going to turn down a backrub?”

He gave her a lopsided grin. “Well when you put it that way…”

~*~O~*~

Rose and Jackie sat in chairs under the umbrellas, watching the Doctor and Jack out in the water with Emma. The water came to the men’s waists, so Emma’s little toes barely grazed the water - until the swell of a wave came up behind them, raising all of them a couple of inches and wetting Emma’s calves. Every time it did, even from so far away, Jackie and Rose were able to hear the Doctor and Jack say “whee!” to Emma, making a show of how fun the waves were. The Doctor was determined that Emma not be afraid of the water…although he was fiercely protective of her and equally determined that nothing happen to her. Emma giggled at the sensation of being raised up and down, and the water lapping at her chubby little legs every time a wave came in. 

Jackie, instead of saying “whee” as the men were or smiling like Rose, was sucking in a tense breath with every wave. 

“They’re fine, Mum,” Rose reassured her. “The Doctor would never let anything happen to her. Nor would Jack.” 

Jackie didn’t answer, just watched the two out in the ocean, bouncing a bit in the gentle waves. She looked pensive for a minute and Rose was just about to offer a penny for her thoughts, then she spoke up. “I’ve never seen the Doctor out of his jumper and jacket.”

“You have, too.” Rose rolled her eyes. “He wore a tux when we got married, then again for Shareen’s wedding a couple of months ago. And the times we’ve stayed at your flat, you’ve seen him in his vest and jimjam bottoms.” 

Jackie waved a dismissive hand. “Yes, yes. I mean, I’ve _rarely_ seen him out of his jumper and jacket. Wears them all the time, even in summer.”

Rose shrugged. “S’what’s comfortable for him.”

“...And I’ve _never_ seen him in swim trunks,” Jackie pondered. “Looks naked, he does.”

Rose smirked and looked out towards her husband and Jack. Jack was holding his hands out for Emma, pulling a ridiculous face, and the Doctor was making a production of ‘flying’ her over to her uncle. 

“He’s not naked,” Rose assured her mother. “Believe me. You’d know if he was.”

“ _Rose Marion Tyler_!” Jackie squawked. “You’re talking to your _mother_!”

“I know that,” Rose defended herself with a cheeky grin and wide, innocent eyes. “I was just sayin’.”

Jackie huffed, then was silent. After a moment, she said, “Now, if we were talkin’ about that Jack…”

“ _Mum!_ ”

Her mum gave her an innocent look, the mirror image of the one Rose had given her a moment before. “I’m just sayin’,” she repeated Rose’s words back to her. “He’s a bit of alright.”

“Ooookay...change of subject now,” Rose decided, and Jackie laughed. Rose laughed with her and when the Doctor and Jack started towards them out of the sea a few moments later, water sluicing down their bare chests and wet trunks clinging to their legs, the women dissolved into giggles again. The Doctor and Jack just gave each other a confused look, and Jack shrugged. 

~*~O~*~

Emma was settled in her bumbo seat in the shade of the umbrella in front of Jackie, who was pulling all sorts of faces to get her to open up for the strained carrots she was offering. The Doctor and Jack had taken over the chairs, and Rose sat between the Doctor’s legs in the sand. 

“You’ll get sand in your suit,” he warned. 

“Then you can just take me in the water and help me get it out, can’t you, love?”

“I’m _right here_ ,” Jackie said without looking up from Emma. Jack just laughed. 

The Doctor smiled, and Rose lay her head on his knee. He sighed, content, and reached up to play with her hair idly. This holiday was going much better than he’d expected. 

“Well,” Jackie pronounced. “I believe this little miss has had all the carrots and peas she’s going to be having today.” she used Emma’s bib (which read ‘Grandma’s Angel’) to wipe the runaway food from the baby’s chin. 

Jack jumped up. “Great! Now Uncle Jack can take her for dessert.”

The Doctor sat up a little, jostling Rose, as Jack bent down to remove Emma’s bib and scoop her up. 

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Jack?”

“I’m taking this little princess for her first waffle cone,” he told the Doctor. 

“She’s too little,” the Doctor answered automatically. 

Rose swatted his leg, and he looked down at her. “Hush, Doctor. It’ll be fine.”

“But Rose, she’s only six months old.”

“It’ll be fine,” Rose reiterated. 

The Doctor furrowed his brow at his wife, and Jack chimed in. “C’mon, Doc. You and Rosie get all of her firsts. This a great one for me. Baby’s first ice cream. I’m claiming it. Uncle’s privilege.”

He felt a light rub in the area that had just been smacked. “It’s okay, Doctor.”

The Doctor let out one of the sighs he’d been anticipating all day, this one in recognition of defeat. He hated when Emma was out of his sight even for a moment, but he trusted Jack not to let any harm come to his baby. 

“Oh, alright.”

Jack whooped and Rose beamed up at him. He lightened a little. 

“Don’t forget her hat, Jack,” Rose reminded him. 

“Of course,” Jack answered, squatting down to fetch the sunhat and place it on Emma’s dark hair. 

“You’d better not use my daughter to make a pull, Harkness,” the Doctor warned in a dark voice.

Jack gave him an incorrigible grin. “Now why would I do that? I’ll already be on a date with the most beautiful girl on this whole beach!” Jack looked down at the tiny girl in his arms, wearing the pink ballerina bathing suit, her fluffy little tutu resting on his arm. “Won’t I, little princess?”

She gurgled at him happily, bringing her hands up to his face, and Jack proceeded to pretend to eat her fingers. Emma laughed, and the Doctor couldn’t help but smile. It was hard not to be happy when someone was so clearly in love with your child, and your child clearly loved that someone right back. 

That is, the Doctor smiled until Jack gave him a saucy wink, Emma’s fingers still pulling at his chin as he walked away. “Although, Doc, I can hardly be blamed if someone tries to pull _me_ while I’ve got such a chick magnet in my arms…”

The Doctor’s eyes widened even as Rose, Jack and Jackie laughed. “You wouldn’t dare, Harkness. Jack! _Jack!_ ”

But Jack was gone, his laughter receding in the sea breeze. 

Rose, still giggling, brought her hand up to the Doctor’s knee. “Let him go, Doctor. He’s just winding you up.” 

“If he wanders off with some woman - or man! - and my baby…”

Rose got to her knees, turning around to face him, and kissed him sweetly. Both of them ignored Jackie’s ‘tcha’ of disgust. “He won’t, love,” she murmured against his lips, cupping his cheek to soothe him in that way she had. “He’s great with Emma. You know that.”

He did, but he didn’t like admitting it, particularly not when he was in this mood. Rose, his clever Rose, knew what he was thinking anyway and grinned triumphantly, knowing she’d won. Again. He scowled, and she wiped it away by leaning forward and kissing him again. He responded the way he always did to her kiss: enthusiastically moving his own lips against hers and letting his hands move down her sides - her _bare_ sides, thanks to the barely-there bikini. 

“If you two are going to start up with the hanky-panky, you can just head right back to that bloody blue box of yours,” Jackie sniped, moving into Jack’s chair. 

Rose broke the kiss, smiling against his mouth. “Let’s go play in the water,” she suggested to him. 

So they did. 

And half an hour later, when Jack returned with a chocolate-faced Emma asleep on his shoulder, the Doctor had to stay in the ocean for a few minutes while Rose went to greet them. No one needed to know it was because he’d been cleaning sand out of her suit.


	2. The Water Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The little family spends the day at the water park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to tenroseforeverandever for the beta!

The Doctor, Rose, Jackie, and Jack were carrying considerably fewer bags when they paid the admission fees to the water park the next day. Rose and Jack were fairly bouncing at the sight of all the water slides, and the Doctor just shook his head with a smile, adjusting Emma in his arms. He’d have to take Rose to Hydrion 7 if she thought _these_ looked fun. 

They made their way to the gigantic wave pool, where they’d elected to set up for the day. Emma was really too small for anything else, but she’d be able to sit at the edge of the shallow end of the pool and play in the artificial surf. 

After the humans and half-humans were appropriately sunscreened, the Doctor pulled Rose over and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Go with Jack. Ride all of the slides. Have a fantastic time.”

She looked at him, uncertain. “But this is a family vacation, Doctor,” she protested lightly. “We’re supposed to stay together.”

He smiled down at her. “You’ve been itching for adventure for a while. Could do with a dose of adrenaline, you could. Besides, we can’t turn Jack loose in this park with all of the half-naked women. Think of all the trouble he’d cause!”

Rose giggled and slid her arms around his waist. “So you’re actually _telling_ me to wander off? As jeopardy-friendly as I am?”

The Doctor grinned and dropped a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I trust you to behave yourself for a couple of hours. Don’t think we can expect any alien invasions today.”

“What about Mum?” Rose asked.

“Oh, no,” Jackie said with raised hands. “You’re not getting me on any of those death traps!”

“Guess that answers that,” the Doctor rolled his eyes, trying not to cringe at the thought of spending the a significant portion of the day virtually alone with his mother-in-law. 

Rose grinned up at him. “Why don’t I go with Jack for a while, then come back and get you and we’ll all go together? Team TARDIS rides again.”

The Doctor considered her for a minute. “We’ll see. Now go on, get.” He pushed her gently and gave her a little swat to her bikini-clad bottom. “Go play. Have fun.”

She gave him a cheeky grin, then bent down to kiss Emma, sitting on her mother’s lap before she stood on tiptoes to kiss her husband. “You behave yourself,” she said to the Doctor then shot a significant look at her mother.

“Not promising nothing, me.”

“Nor me,” Jackie chimed in.

Rose narrowed her eyes at both of them, but there was no heat to it. Then she turned to Jack and put her hand through her friend’s arm. “Alright, Jack, let’s go see what kind of trouble we can get into.” 

“Oh, all kinds, I’ll bet,” Jack gave her a wink.

“Don’t get arrested!” the Doctor called after them.

“No promises!” Jack called back over his shoulder, and the Doctor chuckled a little. Rose laughed and waved, and the Doctor waved back. He watched them go, smiling, then turned to Jackie. 

“Now, Daddy’s precious girl,” he said, putting his hands out for his daughter and taking her when she reached for him, ignoring Jackie’s scowl. “Why don’t you and I see what kind of fun we can find?”

~*~O~*~

Jackie watched Emma sitting in a few inches of water with her father, settled securely between his legs. Gentle, artificial waves lapped at them, bringing the water alternately to Emma’s waist then down to her legs, and the baby watched the water with mild interest. 

The Doctor handed her a colorful plastic fish from a bag beside him and Emma took it with excited little hands, studying it intently before putting it straight into her mouth and making it squeak. She dropped the toy occasionally, prompting the Doctor to reach out in an almost lazy gesture and claim the fish before the tide could, then return it to his daughter with murmured, soothing words. 

Jackie contemplated the events of the last five years that had led to her having an alien for a son-in-law and a half-alien grandbaby. 

One day, things had been perfectly normal, everything in her world just as it always was. She had a flat - the same flat she’d had for twenty years - and a daughter she loved to distraction. Then the Doctor had invaded their lives with a bang... literally. He’d blown up Rose’s job, then run away with her the next day for an entire year. Jackie still got tetchy when she thought about that year, so she tried not to. 

It hadn’t taken very long for Jackie to see that her daughter was in love with the Doctor, not just the stars he gave her. It had taken only slightly longer to see that he loved her right back, even though neither of them would admit anything. Jackie had been heartened when Rose called Mickey to go to Cardiff, and encouraged him to try to rekindle their lost romance in a last-ditch, desperate effort (on both their parts) to steal her back from the Doctor. She’d been disappointed but thoroughly unsurprised when Mickey came home and told her that Rose had chosen the Doctor over him. It was clear that Rose had made her decision. Jackie had tried to accept it. 

As time went on, she _did_ come to accept their relationship, and even to appreciate the infuriating old man that loved Rose enough to sacrifice his own life to save hers. Over a much longer amount of time, she’d even come to love the Doctor (although she’d never let _him_ know that). 

It was really hard to be unhappy about it when someone was so clearly in love with your child, and your child clearly loved that someone right back.

So, now, she watched the Doctor as he played with Emma, his gentle hand reaching down to create little splashes and show Emma how to do the same. 

Emma began to cry inexplicably in the way babies did sometimes, and the Doctor lifted her out of the water in an instant, holding her to his shoulder. 

“What’s the matter, Doodlebug? What’s upsetting my precious girl? Didn’t like the splashing? Oh, you just needed a change of scenery, eh?”

The Doctor put her feet in the water, facing him, letting her feet touch the bottom, resting a little weight there. Emma stepped one foot down, then the other, mimicking walking. He cooed and encouraged her, telling her what a clever girl she was. 

“You’re very good with her,” Jackie mused out loud, and the Doctor’s head snapped up towards her. 

“Should be,” the Doctor deadpanned, “as she’s mine.”

Jackie had promised Rose first thing that morning not to fight with him, so she let that slide. “I just never saw you as the type to be good with babies.”

“I love babies,” he answered, not looking away from Emma. “They’re innocent, not corrupted by the world. Little sponges, soaking up everything around them. S’why I’m so determined to surround Emma with love and beauty, to show her the best of everything before she’s forced to see the worst. I want her to understand that the worst isn’t all there is.” 

She thought on that for a moment. She’d had no choice but to raise her daughter on the estates, and Rose had seen much more of the big bad world at a much younger age than Jackie would have liked. But she had turned out okay. 

She said as much to the Doctor. 

He gave her a soft look, much softer than she’d ever received from him. 

“I know that, Jackie. You did the best you could, given what you had. And Rose is brilliant. You couldn’t have done any better job raising her. But all parents want better for their children than what they had themselves, and Rose and I are no exception.” 

Jackie just nodded. That was true enough. The Doctor turned back to Emma, setting her back down in the water. 

~*~O~*~

Rose and Jack returned a couple of hours later, looking wet, disheveled and happy, both laughing. Jack came to plop down into the chair beside Jackie and Rose joined the Doctor and Emma, greeting both with a sweet kiss. 

“How come I never get any of that?”

“Jack…” the Doctor warned, but Jack just laughed. 

“You lot have fun?” Jackie asked. 

“Oh, Mum, it was the _best_ ,” Rose enthused. “There was this slide called the Daredevil Drop.”

“Yeah,” Jack volunteered. “Seventy-eight feet high. Dropped you straight down. You lay down in the water and it’s like free falling.”

Jackie felt a little green at the prospect of her daughter free falling seventy-eight feet and looked to the Doctor to see what he thought of Rose doing such a thing. He looked unperturbed, simply handing Emma over to Rose where she sat beside him. 

She turned her attention, instead, to Jack. “Seventy-eight feet in a free fall! That’s mad! How could you do that? How could you let _Rose_ do that?” she demanded, then turned to the Doctor for support. The Doctor shrugged, and Jack threw his arm around Jackie. 

“Ah, c’mon, Jackie. It’s fun! You should try it. It’s a good time! Besides, Rosie is a big girl, she can handle herself. She’s handled much worse, believe me.”

Jackie nearly felt faint at the prospect of her daughter handling ‘much worse’ than free falling nearly a hundred feet, but didn’t say anything.

“Honestly, Mum, I’m fine,” Rose comforted her mother, rescuing her wet hair from Emma’s grasp.

“Who won the potthis time?” the Doctor asked with mild interest, getting to his feet.

“Pot? What pot?” Jackie still sounded a little frantic, even in her own ears. 

Rose grinned. “The pool to guess how many people assume Jack and I are a couple. You’d be surprised how often that happens.”

Jackie scoffed. “Not likely.” She was sure the Doctor heard her, what with those ears, but he didn’t acknowledge her.

Rose went on. “Jack and I act like we always do -”

“Which is like siblings,” he interrupted. 

“Right. And people assume that we’re together. Like a couple. We’ve made a game of it, now. Each us puts five quid in the pot and we make a guess as to how many people will make that assumption.” 

“I had four, Rosie had three.” He pouted a little. “Rose won.”

“I did! Ha! Pay up, boys!”

“Oh, no,” the Doctor protested with raised hands. “I wasn’t in the betting pool this round, I’m not payin’. You’re on your own, Harkness.”

“You oughta pay up,” he told the Doctor. “Someone still mistook you for Rose’s dad.”

Jackie laughed out loud. “Not surprised by that at all! Bet _that_ happens all the time!”

The Doctor glowered. Jack cut his eyes to Jackie with a grin, then back to the Doctor. “It gets worse. Or better, depending on how you look at it.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. They assumed you and Jackie were married. They were standing next to us in line for one of the slides and had seen us all come in. Said it was lovely for Rose and I to be able to go out and have a ‘date’ while the grandparents took care of the baby. So it was a double whammy!”

“What?!” the Doctor roared and Jackie squawked.

Rose smoothly deposited Emma into Jack’s arms and wrapped her arms around the Doctor’s neck. “Don't’ worry, love, I set them straight. I told them that the gorgeous, dead sexy Time Lord with the baby wasn’t my father, he was my husband. Just like I always do.”

The Doctor scoffed, but looked slightly mollified. “Did not.”

Rose gave him a smiling roll of the eyes. “Well I didn’t call you a _Time Lord_ of course, but other than that, I did, too.” 

He looked much less disgruntled, but Jackie was still fuming. “I reckon you just let them think I was old and undesirable, did you?”

“Not to worry, Jacks,” Jack said with a wink. “I told them that the _other_ hot blonde was with me. So c’mere and give us a kiss, why don’t ya? We’ll put truth to the lie.” He puckered his lips and made smooching noises at Jackie, who laughingly put her hands up to ward him off. 

“Go away, you plonker!”

“You’re breaking my heart, Jackie!”

But when he gave up his pursuit and handed Emma back to Rose, Jackie had to admit that her mood was much improved.


	3. Snapshots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose reviews photos from their family holday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to hellostarlight20 for the idea for this chapter, and the encouragement to post both chapter two and chapter three...and to tenroseforeverandever for the beta! :)

They’d dropped Jackie off an hour before after a final dinner of broiled scallops and specialty shrimp at one of the local restaurants before they flew away with full bellies. All of them - including the Doctor - had laughed at Emma’s face when she had been allowed to taste the lemon that had been on the Doctor’s plate. The little shake of her head and blinking eyes had been precious, and Rose had taken a picture. She’d taken lots of pictures over the weekend. 

The Doctor hadn’t complained when Jackie wanted to stick around long enough to put Emma to bed, but had been only too glad to drop her off at her flat just as soon as the baby was sleeping peacefully, anyway. Then, after goodbye hugs between mother and daughter, he’d navigated them smoothly into the Vortex. 

Rose crawled into their bed and pulled out her camera, flipping through the pictures she’d taken over the previous three days. 

Jack and the Doctor sat in the sand, building an elaborate sand castle and bickering over the correct way to construct turrets. The Doctor was pointing at something Jack was doing, and Jack was rolling his eyes, clearly ignoring the Time Lord’s interference. 

The next photo had been taken by Jackie, and showed the Doctor, Rose, Jack, and Emma sitting around the finished product, which was truly magnificent. The three adults were beaming while the baby, oblivious to the knowledge that she was supposed to be smiling at the camera, was reaching from Rose’s lap towards the flag that her father had perched on the top of the castle. 

Rose flipped the screen. Emma slept on Jack’s shoulder, her sunhat flipped up a little and her relaxed face covered in chocolate. Jack peered over the baby’s back, grinning proudly. Rose smiled down at the camera. Uncle Jack. She’d never have seen it coming, but he’d fallen naturally into the role and was a wonderful ‘uncle’ who loved Emma completely and protectively.

Another photo, this one of Emma with a handful of sand and a sandy mouth. Her face was one of disbelief and mild disgust, as if trying to figure out what this gritty mess in her mouth was. The Doctor was just behind her, looking stricken. He’d known all too well that the sand wouldn’t hurt his precious girl, but that hadn’t stopped him from being horrified, or from giving Rose a dirty look for taking a picture instead of stopping her from eating sand. Rose had only laughed, then helped him to clean Emma up. 

She flipped the screen again and saw herself and the Doctor with Emma, arms around each other with the baby perched on the Doctor’s arm. Emma was reaching up to pull off her hat, having grown tired of having something on her head, a frustrated look on her face. Rose and the Doctor smiled at the camera, and Rose was struck anew - as she often was - by the happiness she saw there on both their faces, and the fact that they’d almost let that love pass them by. 

The next photo was of her mum, this one of Jackie with Emma. Jackie sat in one of the lounge chairs with Emma’s head in her hands, the baby’s back lying down her Nan’s forearms, and feet curled up against her Nan’s chest. Jackie was smiling down and talking to Emma, probably about how much Nan loved her little angel, and Emma was giving Jackie a wet smile as a reward. It was a precious moment, one that Rose had worried would never happen when she married the Doctor (they’d both thought they were incompatible, genetically), then worried even more when her mum was so upset about there being a baby on the way. Even now, relief swept through her at the image of grandmother and granddaughter so happy together. 

The next picture made Rose grin: a broad, ear-to-ear smile. The Doctor had surprised her and, in a fit of romanticism that he rarely indulged in, had insisted that she accompany him on a stroll down the beach. He had been mistaken for her father earlier that day (as he so often was), and she suspected that he just wanted to put a stop to _that_ particular speculation, but she wasn’t about to turn down such a gesture from her husband. He’d surprised her even more when he’d found a stick and drawn their initials in the sand - D+R - then drawn a heart around it. She’d beamed up at him and rewarded him with a very thorough snog before she’d taken a picture of his artwork for posterity and they’d strolled away, letting the surf take away his drawing. 

They’d found a shell for Emma on their walk and brought it back to her. She’d - predictably - put it directly into her mouth. The Doctor had anticipated this and sanitized it with the sonic before she got her hands on it. Rose snapped a photo just as Emma had pulled it away from her mouth to examine it more closely, a bit of drool on her chin. 

The last photo from the beach was from when the Doctor had taken the baby out into the sea one last time before they packed up. It was a completely candid shot - he’d had no idea he was the subject of her camera’s lens. The sunset was painting the sky behind him brilliant shades of orange and yellow, and he was looking down at his daughter adoringly. She was returning his gaze, her mouth open wide in a laugh at her Daddy’s antics. 

Rose knew she’d be framing that particular photo. 

The next photo started over at the waterpark the next day, after Rose and Jack had come back from the slides. Emma and the Doctor were asleep in one of the park’s lounge chairs, Emma sprawled across her father’s broad chest. The Doctor was relaxed and she could tell he was content, even in sleep. Rose had been unable to resist taking a photo of the two loves of her life, so happy in each other’s embrace. 

She’d gotten Jack to take a picture of her and her mother, and Rose smiled down at the little screen in her hand. They looked so much alike (although Rose would deny that to anyone who asked). She’d been so worried about leaving the Doctor and her mum alone, but neither were sporting any gaping wounds when she got back, so she assumed that a shared love of Emma bound them and kept their claws retracted. Jackie seemed perfectly content on their holiday - as long as Rose and the Doctor kept their hands to themselves...which they struggled to do. 

Rose swiped the screen again and found Jack in the wave pool with Emma in her little floaty boat. Jack had been quite the center of attention on his own, but when he was playing with Emma, the nubile young women had practically flocked around him. Jack, to his credit and in a very un-Jack-like way, had ignored them in favor of his ‘little princess’. The photo showed Jack and Emma smiling at each other as Jack showed Emma how to pat the water, which he said was a precursor to paddling and then swimming. Shortly after Rose had snapped the photo, Emma had gotten frustrated with being confined and cried. Sure enough, her Daddy (her hero) had been there like a flash to rescue her from the wicked restraint of the evil, yellow, floaty boat. 

The Doctor had brought Emma back to the shallow end of the wave pool and sat her down between his legs to play. Jackie leaned over and told Rose that he had spent the entire morning that she and Jack had been on the slides like that. The two splashed and laughed, Emma blowing bubbles and babbling, the Doctor talking to her as if holding a normal conversation. Rose had been moved almost to tears by the casual playtime between her husband and daughter, and unable to resist capturing the memory forever with her camera. 

The last photo from the day before was of Rose perched on the Doctor’s shoulders, out in the middle of the wave pool, her hands resting on top of the his head. His chest shone with water droplets, but she tried not to get distracted by that tempting image. His smile was brilliant, that goofy smile she loved, but her face was flushed. She flushed now when she remembered his ribald comment about how unexpected it was to have his head between her legs with her mum barely thirty feet away. She’d dunked him for his cheek after she got down from his shoulders, and that had started a war that had ended (not surprisingly) in a protracted cuddle in the middle of the crowded wave pool. 

The en suite door opened and the Doctor emerged wearing his vest top and pajama bottoms, tossing his towel towards the hamper and missing it completely. 

“What are you grinning about?” he asked with a half-smile. 

Rose shrugged. “Looking at pictures from our holiday,” she answered, swiping the screen again to get to another image. 

In it, the Doctor and Emma leaned over the edge of the touch tank at the aquarium. Emma’s hand was barely touching the water as she reached for the stingrays, watching them with fascination. 

“I still can’t believe you told her that sting rays were actually from Ledyel IV, Doctor,” Rose said with a roll of her eyes, as the Doctor settled in under the duvet next to her. 

“Why shouldn’t I? They are. Most Earth sea life is from off-world.”

“I know that, but you didn’t have to be so _loud_ about it,” she admonished him with a grin. “Mum wasn’t the only one giving you funny looks.”

“Honestly, Rose, anyone who thinks an octopus is indigenous to Earth is an ape and should be treated like one. Incredibly clever animals, octopuses. Always escaping the pitiful tanks you humans keep them in. Frankly, if humans were sea creatures, they’d be your overlords.”

Rose giggled. “Good thing we’re land-dwellers, then. I don’t fancy having to do the bidding of an evil octopus.”

“Oh, they’re not evil. Not all of them, anyway. You get the occasional bad egg, just like with humans. Most of them just want to be left alone,” he explained. 

She grinned. “Emma really had fun today. She giggled a lot at the otters.” 

“Playful creatures, otters. Don’t lose that playfulness when they’re grown. Manage to balance work and play. Difficult to do, that.”

“She really enjoyed the penguins.”

“They _were_ cute, waddlin’ and swimmin’ around,” he allowed, then looked thoughtful. “Did you know that many penguins mate for life?”

Rose raised an eyebrow at him. She did, in fact, know that, but she wanted to see where he was going with it. “Oh?” 

“It’s true,” he confirmed, looking down at the photo of Emma pressing her hands and nose against the glass cage that housed the arctic birds. “And both the male and female participate in the raising of the offspring. Male penguins are actually exceptional fathers.”

“Just like you, then,” Rose grinned up at him. 

He flushed at the compliment - even if he’d been fishing for it - and Rose stretched up to kiss his jaw. “Thank you, Doctor.”

“For what?”

“For this holiday. It was brilliant. Emma may not remember it, but I always will.”

“You’re welcome, Rose.” He ducked his head to kiss her, and Rose moved her mouth under his for only a moment before she nibbled at his bottom lip, sucking it between her own lips. He groaned, opening to her, and the kiss grew more heated. Rose put the forgotten camera to the side as he pushed on her shoulder to lay her back, covering her body with his. He’d just left her mouth and started his favorite path along her jaw and down her neck when he stopped suddenly, pulling away to look down at her with a furrowed brow. 

“What?”

 

“I seem to remember you promising me something, Rose Tyler.”

She gave him her best innocent look. “I did?”

“Mmhm,” he fairly growled. “Something to do with a bikini.”

Her tongue came up between her teeth, and she was gratified to see him follow it with his eyes before he looked up at her again. 

“Well,” she told him in her most seductive tone, running a finger down his chest, “I’m willing to follow through, of course, but you’ll have to do with a substitution.”

“What kind of substitution? Want to make sure I’m not cheated, me.”

His brows shot up and his lips quirked. Rose went on. 

“The black ones that you like, the tiny ones. With the lace and the bows.”

He groaned and went back for her neck. “Minx.”


End file.
